Tuesday, February 21, 2012
Disciplining children doesn't mean putting them over your knee, but it's your job as a parent to teach your children how to behave respectfully.
Family members often tell me how well behaved my children are. Typically, I roll my eyes and say something along the lines of: “Except when they are pushing each other and whining about something or other…” A scene from the hit television show Sex and the City pops into my head, where Miranda runs into an old friend on the street and they each make jokes about the circumstances of their lives; Miranda is single and her friend has no kids. They do this to compensate for how they think people are viewing them. But the truth is… it isn’t until I am around other people’s children, for long amounts of time, that I realize how well behaved my children actually are. On a recent trip to visit family I spent a good portion of the weekend biting my …
Tuesday, February 14, 2012
Greenbelt Patch Editor Bailey Henneberg runs down the gifts that no sweetheart wants to see on the most romantic day of the year.
Wednesday, February 8, 2012
A parenting lesson in high heels and a short skirt.
A moment that I had thought about, prepared for, dreaded, and denied for the better part of 20 years arrived this weekend when Barbie crossed our threshold in her 1/4” stilettos clutched by my 3-year-old daughter’s hands. We have a "marble jar" system in our house to remind me and my husband to use positive reinforcement whenever possible. The kids get a marble every time they do something we’d like to see continue (e.g., share, get dressed, not kill each other), and when the jar is full, they are entitled to something of their choosing. After months of working toward their goal, they proudly topped off their jars last week, so my husband took them to Target over the weekend for their big reward. When they got home, my daughter rushed …
Wednesday, February 1, 2012
Making the choice to be a stay-at-home parent or work-at-home parent doesn't guarantee you'll get the appreciation you deserve.
“It’s not fair,” whines the six-year-old as I inform him it’s time to brush his teeth and get ready for school. I exhale, louder than I anticipate, and reply: “I know it’s not fair that I care so much about your teeth and your education. It must be difficult to have such a caring mom … Now go brush your teeth.” I reach over and give him a tickle while trying to corral him up the steps. He drops to his knees and says again with a hint more of frustration, “No, it’s not fair that we don’t see Daddy!” I stop in my tracks. Clearly this is not a power struggle about the morning routine and instead a bigger issue. Even though we are running five minutes behind schedule, I sit on the step and reply, “I don’t understand? You see Daddy every other …
Tuesday, January 31, 2012
Greater Greater Washington's Bradley Heard writes that the proposed mixed-use development will have 'mediocre' access to transit options.
The proposed Cafritz project could generate a "disastrous" amount of traffic and should be discarded in favor of development closer to Metro stations, Bradley Heard argued Tuesday in an article for Greater Greater Washington. Heard called on the Prince George's County Planning Board to reject the developer's rezoning application "if [the county] is serious about its commitment to smart growth and development around its 15 Metro stations." "Building the retail [at the Cafritz site] would make stores less likely to locate at other sites which are closer to transit and already zoned for high-density mixed-use development," Heard wrote. The planning board's hearing on the Cafritz application is due to resume this Thursday, Feb. 2 at 10:30 a.m…
Friday, January 27, 2012
The council's opposition to the Cafritz project seems inconsistent with its openness to a similar development less than a mile away, the paper writes.
A staff editorial in Thursday's edition of The Diamondback questions the consistency of recent moves by the College Park Council after it voted to oppose the proposed Cafritz development but signaled interest in luring a high-end grocery store to a nearby site. As reported Monday, Harris Teeter is one of several grocers weighing a new location at the College Park Shopping Center, situated about half a mile north of the Whole Foods-anchored Cafritz project. JBG Rosenfeld Retail is exploring the possibility of a mixed-use development at the site. Earlier this month, the College Park council broke with its Riverdale Park and University Park counterparts in opposing the Cafritz rezoning plan, citing traffic and density concerns. But on Tuesday…
Tuesday, January 24, 2012
Keeping a toddler's 'to do' list on track is often as simple as figuring out what they value.
When our toddler learned the word "no" (which they tend to do fast), I tried to find ways to get her to do the things that we still needed her to do, like brushing teeth, taking baths, and eating the occasional vegetable. I asked other friends what their methods were, and most of them centered around some kind of responsibility chart or reward system. When I first embarked on this idea a few months ago, I felt a "true" responsibilities chart (like the kind you buy in a store with chores and magnets that correspond to the chore) might have been a little over her head. One friend who had such a chart said she would often catch her daughter moving the magnets around in any random order, thus defeating the purpose of doing the things on the …
Wednesday, January 18, 2012
Mark Noll of Rethink College Park argues that the benefits of the project outweigh the added congestion.
Should neighbors be worried about the traffic generated by the proposed Cafritz development, or is it simply a byproduct of greater advantages offered by the project? That's the question Mark Noll addressed over the weekend in a post for Rethink College Park. To his mind, "the benefits are clear." "You don’t have to spend 20 minutes driving over to Silver Spring, searching for a place to park, then driving all the way home again," Noll writes. "Instead, you get some exercise, finish your errands quicker, and have a much more enjoyable morning." "Whether it be in a car, on a bus, or on the platform waiting for the train, traffic (congestion) is a part of life when you live in one of the largest metropolitan areas in the country, and it will…
Tuesday, January 17, 2012
Finding common ground on family movie night.
Lately I have been pondering how to share the movies and TV that I loved as a kid with my own children without seeming so… well… dated. Now that my children are old enough to justify family movie nights at home, I find myself longing to snuggle up on the couch as Fraulein Maria and the Von Trapp children belt out “My Favorite Things. Meanwhile, my kids are begging for the latest in CGI. While I enjoy Pixar films and had to see the new Muppet movie in the theater, I also want to revisit the classics I've watched over and over again, and—more importantly—I want my kids to watch and love them, too. I remember my mom introducing my sisters and me to The Parent Trap (with Haley Mills, not Lindsay Lohan) and spending a whole summer singing “Let…
Thursday, January 12, 2012
Looking at this week's item is Daniel Pendick with Geeked on Goddard in Prince George's County, Md.
"Cubicle of the Fittest" will offer gizmos, toys, decor and more — to help local cubicites stay alive or at least have a good laugh within the stifling, neon lit, tastelessly decorated walls of their cubes. Looking at this week's item is Daniel Pendick with Geeked on Goddard in Prince George's County, Md. "In a decision between working in a windowless cubicle or driving a light saber through my head, it would be a tough choice. But certainly it would be easier to bear if the Force were with me," Pendick said. This week's addition to your office survival kit is: The Yoda USB Desk Protector "Guard your desk, he will," states ThinkGeek, which is offering this week's selection. If you need to step outside your partitioned walls to seek the …
Pachacutec
2:22 pm on Thursday, February 9, 2012
I'd forgotten about good old Betty Boop!! Actually, if people are going to place blame for young girls having distorted ideas about their body image, I would say that current female celebrities are probably more of an influence than dolls. As i said earlier, I came up back in the 50's and females in movies and on tv shows were, on the whole, NOT as thin as so many famous women nowadays. But I … more ›